Tag: healthy lifestyle

The past months have been very busy. My son is about to graduate from high school and we have been preparing with all the events around “Senior Year” to help him keep his sanity and for us to keep ours. My business has been going great and celebrating those I love in my life has been very fulfilling and made my heart so happy. All these things are good, but after awhile my body started to talking to me, “Hey you, yes you, can we celebrate me for a moment, can you honor and pay attention to me, because I am losing it over here. Yup that’s a sore throat you are feeling and those are body-aches, PAY ATTENTION LADY!” LOL. 🙂

But all jokes aside, I got so rundown and being on auto immune suppressants, as a kidney transplant recipient, is not good medicine for wellness, and with a busy schedule. Not happening!

This is my birthday week/month. I know, I am one of those people. Why not? It only comes once a year! Right?! Let’s get on with it, how this laryngitis has been my birthday blessing .

So, I got sick and I lost my voice. No voice for the past three days. I have been pretty much silent and laid up in the house. The thing is, I know what this means, I am not listening to my spirit, so that is the first place I go, back home, to me, to Spirit.

You know that time in your life when you are fighting to “make things and people happen” and nothing is going your way. Yes, that frustrating, what is wrong with the world time? What this week has taught me, well, what it has brought me back to, is a lesson God has been teaching me for many years. The issue is never outside of you Lisa, it is always within. I love Mother Teresa’s quote, “In the final analysis. it is between you and God. It was never between you and them.”

So here I am with no voice, speaking to God with my soul, listening for his guidance, his words. What is it God that you want me to know? It is a question I have been asking God for as long as I can remember. The answer always opens up my heart and soul and blessings flood into my life in ways I never imagined.

The first thing he did was lead me to a book titled, Make the Most of You, by PatrickLindsay. I read something in this book this week that brought me to tears, it was a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, ” To believe in something, and not live it, is dishonest.” Wow!!!

What do I l believe and I am not living it? Where am I not be truthful in my life? I examined this question and it pricked my heart so much. I believe that God is the source of my life and that whatever I need and desire comes directly from him. But I was stressed out and living like, No what I need and desire, comes from this situation or a person working it out for me. That is a lie. The second belief, You need to say No, you are on divine assignment, stay aligned with God and he will tell you where to go and when to go and who to go with. I was living, I need to be there, so they will see that I care, so they will see that I matter. EGO. EGO. EGO. This made me sick, because I was not honoring what I believe to be true. I WAS HONORING MY EGO, MY PRIDE.

We must not as Marianne Williamson states from the Course in Miracles, “Do not seek illusions to replace the truth.” I am returning back to being a truth seeker, my well being depends on it. The divine assignments that God has laid out for me depends on it. The flow of blessings and miracles that God has stored up for me depends on it. Silence has been a wonderful teacher, but the greatest teacher of them all for me is in God’s word: Galatians 1:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

It is so easy to be human focus and not spirit focus in our day to day lives. I leave you with this beautiful African story about allowing our souls to catch up with our bodies:

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

There was once an American traveler who planned a safari to Africa. He was that typical Type-A American tourist, who many of us may be and who I admittedly am when I travel. We do our research about this travel destination and we have a timetable, maps, and a clear agenda of the things we need to see and do. Some local people had even been hired to carry some of the traveler’s supplies as they trekked throughout the land—it was that level of planning.

On the first morning, they all woke up early and traveled fast and covered a great distance. The second morning was the same—woke up early, traveled fast, and traveled far. Third morning, same thing. But on the fourth morning, the local hired help refused to move. Instead, they sat by a tree in the shade well into the morning. The American traveler became incensed and irate and said to his translator, “This is a waste of valuable time. Can someone tell me what’s going on here?” The translator looked at him and calmly answered, “They’re waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.”[1]

Feeling afraid is very natural and sometimes very necessary. Fear ~ an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. We are wired with fear, it serves a purpose, like all things in our lives. It’s here to help us be safe, it keeps us alive during the times of danger. Our ancestors lived in a world where imminent danger from wild animals and the elements of their environment was always a life or death situation, but even now people live in societies with constant war, and physical danger around every corner. This launches us into The fight or flight mode.

The truth is most of us do not live in extremely dangerous environments, where we need to be in fight or flight mode, all the time. But, when you think about it, we are often there in our minds. We are practicing self preservation, we are trying to keep something, SAFE. We are trying to preserve our idea of what life should look like.

When life for any reason doesn’t look the way we would like it to, fear pops up and we panic!

Our minds begin to wonder, and our “what ifs”, start to flood us like a dam that has been broken and now is taking over a calm and peaceful forest, disturbing all of life within it. What if they do not like me? What if they see me for who I truly am? What if I do not get the job? What if I am not good enough? What if he doesn’t call? What if this relationship ends? What if it’s not what I expected? There is no obvious physical danger here, but our “idea of life” has been threaten. I love this quote by Mark Twain, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Most of the time we are living in fear of things that will never happen.

When we constantly live like this we can be do serious harm to ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Here are a few ways that chronic fear can impact our lives: SOURCE: Impact of Fear and Anxiety
Living under constant threat has serious health consequences.

Physical health. Fear weakens our immune system and can cause cardiovascular damage, gastrointestinal problems such as ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, and decreased fertility. It can lead to accelerated ageing and even premature death.

Memory. Fear can impair formation of long-term memories and cause damage to certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus. This can make it even more difficult to regulate fear and can leave a person anxious most of the time. To someone in chronic fear, the world looks scary and their memories confirm that.

Brain processing and reactivity. Fear can interrupt processes in our brains that allow us to regulate emotions, read non-verbal cues and other information presented to us, reflect before acting, and act ethically. This impacts our thinking and decision-making in negative ways, leaving us susceptible to intense emotions and impulsive reactions. All of these effects can leave us unable to act appropriately.

Mental health. Other consequences of long-term fear include fatigue, clinical depression, and PSTD.

We do not want to stay in a chronic state of fear, but when it comes, you can allow fear to serve you.

A few months ago my fear was over taking me and all I wanted to do is run away and put my son in a room, so he would be safe. I was in the flight mode for sure. It was about my son driving, he is 17 years old and he has been driving for a year. He is a pretty good driver, but it’s a scary thing to see your kid growing up and getting behind the wheel, with all the teenager driver accidents I hear about. I also have PTSD. Years ago I saw a guy killed in a car accident and his body laid in the road for awhile before the paramedics came to remove him. This put me in the hospital and I couldn’t speak for three days.

Trauma can give the mind references to pull up, when those similarities show up in our lives and our bodies and mental state can feel as though it’s happening all over again.

So when those past thoughts start to overwhelm me, I prayed and meditated. Suddenly I heard a gentle whisper, ” Why do I have to be something you avoid, something you fear or allow to consume you? I am here to serve your highest good.” I just sat there in tears, blown away by these words, that just washed over my soul. Fear is here to serve me. YES!!! It was put inside of my being, to help me stay safe and survive the elements of my world. The thing is, I do not live in an environment that is constantly threatening my physical body, but I do live in a world that is constantly threatening my emotional, mental and spiritual body. I continued to meditate and pray. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and this came to me, “Ask me why I am here?’ “Why did I show up?” So I took another trembling breath and asked fear ” Hello, fear why are you here?”

Fear said, as I continued to meditate and pray:

I am here to remind you that you have stepped away from where you should truly stand. You have stepped away from the spirit of truth and love. I feel so strong and so forceful, because I need you to move from this place NOW. I grip you so tight, because I need you to pay attention and listen to why I am here. I am here to show you where you have not surrendered. I am here to get you to look at the place deep inside you, where you first experienced me so intensely, so we can go back there and find your healing. I am here to get you to ask, Why am I scared? What do I truly want and am I afraid I will not get it? I am here to remind you to get back to GOD, back to LOVE and back to TRUTH. IF AM HERE, THEN FAITH CAN NOT BE and you will not have hope. I do not give hope, I am just a reminder that you need to take care. SO LET’S DEAL with it. There is work for you to do. I am your teacher. I am a hard teacher, that will consume you until you surrender, learn and move forward.

So many thoughts flooded my mind during this time of prayer. I had moved away from God, love and truth in my thinking and I was afraid of my son getting into a bad car accident and being killed like that guy was. I had to go back and deal. I had to give that fearful thought over to God. I had to trust and plug into the million other probabilities out there, like this one, my son can be safe on the road. You see we allow fear to take us over, because we do not honor it’s presence.

We push it away, we try to avoid it altogether, but I am learning to stop, pause, breath, pray and ask fear, Hello, fear why are you here? What do you need me to know? Where do we need to go? Once you have done that, the light comes back in, the soul feels safe from the dangers of the emotions we have not dealt with. It maybe something in childhood, a bad relationship, a real physical trauma, a negative thought, whatever it is, we must not be afraid of fear.

We need to face our fears like a old friend that knows us really well and is trying to get us to see the truth. Resistance only feeds fear’s call and it starts to consume us, so surrender with lovingkindness and ask fear, “HELLO, FEAR WHY ARE YOU HERE,” so we can be FREE.

Today I am talking about “food for the soul”, but will be back to our regularly scheduled food program tomorrow. 🙂

Does your surroundings reflect your goals?

Did you know According to U.S. News, approximately 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February, so the odds are against you. Source: Business Insider

Drink more water. Keep a filled water bottle next to your bed at night. A great reminder in the morning to drink up.

Wow! Really? That means we only have a couple of weeks before most of us stop going to gym, our closets look like a hurricane hit them, and that plant based “What the Health” diet, has us pulling up to the closest fast food chain. LOL. 🙂 Okay all kidding aside, staying true to our goals can be pretty challenging, if you do not start off with the right intention, as well as, giving ourselves a bit of grace and lots of support. I wanted to share on this blog a few things I do to keep myself focus and on track. It’s not going to cost you tons of dollars, maybe not even a dime, just a moment to breath, slow down and make some conscious decisions . So, here we go, are you ready! This is a big one!

Keep your goals visible

Be determine to not give up! Keep trying!

Do not be so hard on yourself. Remember this is a journey and along the way we have to pace and reset. Give yourself grace and take time out to go back and look at your goals. Ask yourself a few questions: How is this going? How is this making me feel? Do I need to reevaluate a few things or maybe change this goal to something more realistic? We can easily be pumped up by the beginning of the year with all the it’s “A New Year, so you much become a New You” talk. There’s nothing wrong with growing in all areas of our lives, but do it with lovingkindness.

Make sure you have encouragement around. Get a goal buddy, or join a Groupme, an amazing app where you can find like minded individuals, moving in the same flow of energy as yourself.

Set yourself up to win. I have throughout my home mantras, affirmations and positive words to remind me of my goals. My fridge, pantry and counters, reflect my goals for healthy eating. My yoga mat is laid out in my yoga space, so I can see it. I put my water jug on the side of my bed every night, so I can make sure I drink my water as soon as I get up.

Reward yourself appropriately. If it’s about eating healthy, do not reward yourself with a bucket of ice cream, maybe reward yourself with a massage or a new pair of shoes, and if you want the ice cream or cake, just a few bites and PLEASE enjoy it. How we feel about food affects how we digest our food, so be happy eating that cake.

A Bonus Tip:

Stay positive, making goals can be so much fun! It allows us to open up our minds to all the possibilities out there waiting for us. We get to try new things, connect with people moving in the same direction and possibly change our lives for the better.

I am so excited about cooking and sharing on Fox 5 Good Day Atlanta, how you can stay Fit and Fabulous for 2017, using 5 main ingredients under 30 minutes.

This salad was inspired by that simple challenge. We can do it and we can do it deliciously, with hardly no effort at all, using some of my easy recipes. It just takes some preparing and a bit of creativity. I love this salad, because it has over 26 grams of protein, that is vegetarian and about 15 grams of carbs. I love those numbers.

I hope you tune in to Fox 5 Good Day Atlanta Thursday Feburary 9th at 9:00 am, but until then, enjoy this salad. Oh yeah! Do not forget to always Set the Table with Love.

Pear and Beet Salad Fit and Fabulous

Pear and Beet Salad

Ingredients:

4 small roasted or marinated beets, (I used Love Beets, already peeled and marinated or roasted for you and they are organic and delicious.)

1 bosc pear

2 cups of your favorite greens, chopped, ( I used romaine lettuce.)

2 tbsp of your favorite cheese, ( I used parmesan, vegetarian.)

1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

Directions:

Add the lettuce to a salad bowl. Place the beets around in different places around lettuce, add the pears on top of the lettuce, sprinkle the cheese and the pumpkin seeds. You may have pumpkin seeds left over, eat them as a snack later.

I love peas! I love hummus. Well here is the result of those two desires, my new love. This wonderfully refreshing Green Pea Mint Hummus. I used my Go Raw Sprouted Super Simple Seeds and made the base of this creamy yumminess. This hummus makes a great alternative to the regular chick pea version. One reason I love the recipe is because it’s lower in carbs and high in protein, because of the sprouted pumpkin and sunflower seeds and the seeds being sprouted makes this a very digestible treat, loaded with enzymes

It is great on veggies, as a spread or you can add it to raw veggie pasta with a little olive oil for a nice lunch or dinner.

In a food processor first process the seeds until you get a crunchy corn meal consistency. Add the other ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process until mostly smooth. If needed, add a bit of water until you get the hummus consistency that you like.